The only place to ride out a tornado, is underground. would be a shame to lie in a ditch, then get hit with a bus,

Especially if its your own?

It is amazing how some of these storms developed so fast, seeming from nothing, clear air, to monster storms within minutes. My fire pager kept going off last night, warning, cancel, warning, cancel, no wait, warning, okay cancel. Then the power went out. Feel like building a bunker.

I think if you were lying in a ditch for some of the recent large tornadoes you would haven't been protected much I imagine.

One of the local Scout camps has been building a number of storm shelters. The problem is that almost every one is cinder block and built into the side of a hill. If a severe storm hit that exposed cinder block wall the building would probably collapse. There is one building with a full basement used as a storm shelter that might be safer.

This guy and some others have made shipping containers into swimming pools inground. And currently I am working with an architect on designing one for my yard. It is about 20% or even wayyy less to do it then to install a regular pool. It is short lived though as the pool liner has to be replaced every 10-25 years, but that's okay with me cuz it is mainly for my son who needs it for physical therapy and in that long of time he will probably have a family of his own and moved as far away from his busy body mom as he can get lol But my architect thinks this can be done by coating the container with truck bedlining paint and then sinking it in the ground and shoring up the sides with gabions (which are wire baskets with rocks in them, they are used for erosion and stuff)..

Nov 2006 I ran a crane after a tornado in a trailer park/ trailers stacked 7 high in a pile. each one we lifted off had injured or worse. stays with you. Now those parks have concrete storm shelters for their residents. 27 no longer with us and several will never be the same again. It will(tornado) find you. Inside most sturdy structure available away from windows and lowest level. Under furniture. We are taught get out of car get in ditch and cover up. Best is be informed and try to avoid confor tation. PS We have a safe room (as do our family members) built into our homes. Have used several times but lucky us have never had a direct hit. 99% of fatalities in our area are in mobile homes. Wish I had a answer to your question that was a sure far in every situation. If a sturdy structure is available.If you can avoid area.if you can slow down and let pass . if if if.... do you best and pray Bob

A couple of years ago I was sitting in a truckstop in KS, done for the day, had the curtains drawn doing day end paperwork. Truck start shaking a lot and I thought "wind must be picking up" . Looked out the front window and there was a very small tornado about 6 feet in front of my truck. Mine was the first in a line of twenty trucks that didn't have any damage. The first truck was tipped over on the next, this truck was loaded. Second was a lowboy with a brand new large tracked backhoe. All of the windows of the backhoe were sucked in. #3 was scooted sideways into #4. One had it's door taken off (it was closed). All had broken windows and most had mirrors missing. I had a new van on the trailer and both of it's rear windows sucked inside. The motel next door lost a lot of windows.This was a very small (about 6 ft in dia) tornado, it hadn't really picked up much dirt yet. I think the only safe place is somewhere else, or underground. The sun was shining, and not really very many clouds.

Another storm with softball size hail, didn't hurt my truck (cracked windshield), but totaled the load of vans I was hauling.

Neighbor was talking about buryable fiberglass storm shelters. Until I can get a basement in here thats not a bad idea. Otherwise I could build a real bunker/root celler/safe house. The ONLY truly safe place is underground. If that tornado had startede throwing those cars at the hospital it couldhave been much, much worse. Makes you think.

Fortunately, we're up here in the cold snowy rockies near Mr. Safetyman. i'll take the cold winds and snow to a tornado.

after reading all of the above, if i were going down the interstate and found myself facing a tornado, i think i would stop, open a bay and climb in. seems to me that's about as close as i can get to an inside wall in a building. it could throw the bus, and there are some items in the bay to roll onto us, but i'm thinking most debris would not go thru the bay doors, and i'd feel safer than lying in a ditch. solid ceiling, floors and dividers all around me. That Joey bed would fly right out and i'd fly in, pulling the bay door down behind me.

obviously, the thing that hit Joplin this week would probably make a mess out of the bus, and maybe us, but i'd rather think the bay is better than nothing.

Logged

Tom 1991 Eagle 15 and proud of it.8V92T, 740, Fulltime working on the road.

Even a tornado like hit Joplin, you would be better in a ditch than in any vehicle. But I shudder to even think of getting into a situation where you have to make that kind of decision, or if I could. I do know you would have to point a gun at my head to get me into the cargo bay though, no way.

I still keep thinking how I drove through Joplin virtually blind and oblivious. Had we come through later and ran into that, I just cant imagine the outcome. I will likely avoid heavy weather in the future, either by hanging back or changing course.

As a society, we fail to learn from our mistakes. Why do we rebuild communities in flood plains or tornado alley when eventually the same disaster occurs again. Ooops, was that just the pot calling the kettle black? I live in an earthquake zone.

Flood plains are one thing, but tornados are some else altogether. We know where it could flood. We have no idea where a tornado might strike. We would have to abandon at least 25% of the USA to remove everyone out of tornado alley.

While we cant possibly avoid tornados, we could build houses much more tornado proof, or maybe the phrase is tornado resistant. Dirt berms around them would make a dramatic difference. But we could stop building along the seashores and river banks. Or at least stop offering government assistance when they get destroyed, and stop insuring them. Like that would ever happen.

Said on the news today the Hospital in Joplin has been inspected by engineers and is to be torn down, damage is too significant to rebuild it. Amazing it could do that kind of damage to such a large building. I have to wonder how a tall skyscraper would take a hit like that.

I watched a show (weather channel?) a year or so ago about what if an F-5 hit downtown Dallas daytime on a weekday, they predicted thosands of casualties. Sad thing is it's just a matter of time, maybe not Dallas but some other very crowded metropolitan area. You would think the tall buildings would weaken the tornado, living here in the mountains I used to think we were somewhat protected here by the terrain, the tornado that hit Mountain View and Clinton Arkansas last year changed my mind on that. The tornado went up the southwest sides of the hills and down the northeast sides and traveled about 150 miles. We have had local (within 15 miles of me) tornadoes over the years but they seemed to have stayed in the valleys and were generally on the ground for just a few miles. The last few years thay seem to stay on the ground for much longer distances.

Had a chance to drive through the aftermath of a Tornado way up here, tracked past the edge of then small city of Barrie ON, some 30 plus years ago.

About 20 minutes after it happened. Rained and wind like you rarely see as we were unsuspectingly headed up the highway.

A coach was parked there on the highway, facing the edge of the path, with the front windshield and some bodywork gone, opened up like a can of soup. Still on the wheels, but it was just at the edge, the track didn't go over the top.

Flying sheet metal siding from the factory it tracked over was form fitted around the standing trees to the sides of the path, cars down the embankment, and then it tracked up the hill and into the then new housing subdivision. Wooden shards of building lumber and trees EVERYWHERE.

No doubt more, because you simply can't take it all in as you continue to inch through the traffic, and still unsure as to what had happened. Not exactly the kind of terrain one usually expects a tornado to manifest in these parts, usually they track across the high flatter ground up Hwy 10, further to the west.

Stories of old line run coach drivers seeing one, pull over, let it pass, carry on.

As for hanging around gawking, I've seen pics on youtube of a dumb @$# reporter getting walloped with a sheet of something. Lucky didn't get head lopped off.

Best to rely on no one but your own smarts. Nobody else is going to know either.